The Diversity Issue

by Wess

In case you didn’t know, I was featured in the Fall 2011 One Day magazine (page 13, what!). I’m TFAmous, people. I never did read the rest of the magazine, though. Someone asked me recently whether I’d read “the Diversity Issue” of One Day, and I didn’t realize this was the very issue they were talking about!

I finally read it the other day, and loved it. My favorite article was “The evolution of DCA,” which began to answer many of the questions I have about why DCA is the way it is. It highlighted the difficulty of coming up with diversity training that values the limited time corps members have to learn to be teachers while still staying committed to pushing conversations about race beyond mere “tips and tricks” for dealing with race conversations in the classroom. I don’t think the current “competencies” model strikes a satisfactory balance, but I do recognize more of the challenge.

But this brings me to my favorite sentences in the whole magazine, a quote by Victor Diaz at the end of this article: “This is the beauty of Teach For America, isn’t it? I have this critique and still find the space here to do something about it. I have very high expectations for the organization, and I think any strong critique has to have a responsibility component to it. That’s how change happens. I may not always feel at home at Teach For America, but I still feel a part of Teach For America, and I still feel responsible for Teach For America.”

One Response

Wess – I’m just writing to let you know that I find the racism in TFA to be pretty toxic which especially concerns me for kids and their families, but extends to my own desire for self-preservation. Anyway – I’m so refreshed to see this here, so thanks for that.